North Gyeongsang Technopark earns top S rating in smart manufacturing evaluation for 7th consecutive year

North Gyeongsang Technopark, also known as Gyeongbuk TP, achieved the top S rating for the seventh consecutive year in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 2025 Regional Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center performance evaluation, the organization announced Tuesday.

The North Gyeongsang Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center has pursued a range of manufacturing innovation projects — including government-backed smart factory construction support, AI-specialized smart factories, autonomous factories, digital collaboration factories and local government smart factory support programs — building a comprehensive, full-cycle manufacturing innovation support system tailored to each company's growth stage and production environment.

Gyeongbuk TP has served as the planning body for autonomous factory initiatives, spending the past three years identifying and developing AI-based autonomous manufacturing projects while providing full-cycle support from planning through construction and performance management, helping to spread the autonomous factory model across the region.

In parallel, the center has supported local companies in building a physical AI foundation through region-specific smart factory programs.

In this year's evaluation, the center received comprehensive recognition across all aspects of its operations, including identifying and managing supported companies, executing and settling project budgets, improving smart factory utilization, operating a digital transformation mentor program, fostering a regional manufacturing innovation ecosystem, advancing cooperative projects with local governments, and identifying and disseminating outstanding cases.

"We will continue to spread next-generation manufacturing innovation technologies — including manufacturing AI, AI agents and on-device AI — throughout regional industries, and further advance our integrated manufacturing innovation support system by organically linking government and local government programs to actively support the AX transformation and autonomous manufacturing competitiveness of local manufacturers," said Ha In-seong, president of North Gyeongsang Technopark.